upon many waters.
017:002 The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her,
and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with
the wine of her fornication."
017:003 So he carried me away in the Spirit into a desert, and there
I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored Wild Beast
which was covered with names of blasphemy and had seven heads
and ten horns.
017:004 The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and was
brilliantly attired with gold and jewels and pearls.
She held in her hand a cup of gold, full of abominations,
and she gave filthy indications of her fornication.
017:005 And on her forehead was a name written: "I am a symbol of
great Babylon, the mother of the harlots and of the abominations
of the earth."
017:006 And I saw the woman drinking herself drunk with the blood
of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.
And when I saw her I was filled with utter astonishment.
017:007 Then the angel said to me, "Why are you so astonished?
I will explain to you the secret meaning of the woman and of
the seven-headed, ten-horned Wild Beast which carries her.
017:008 "The Wild Beast which you have seen was, and is not,
and yet is destined to re-ascend, before long,
out of the bottomless pit and go his way into perdition.
And the inhabitants of the earth will be filled with amazement--
all whose names are not in the Book of Life, having been
recorded there ever since the creation of the world--
when they see the Wild Beast: because he was, and is not,
and yet is to come.
017:009 Here is scope for the exercise of a mind that has wisdom!